On this week’s Reel Web, Tim gives an overview of several recent updates and new features launched at YouTube including over the past week. Just yesterday we reported that you will now be able to link your YouTube channel to a Google+ brand page so as to be able to maintain your brand name identity. Merch annotations were officially released which allows creators to sell merchandise from within video annotations. And, with a new airplay-like app for Nintendo and Android, YouTube is making strides to move the viewing experience into the living room. Finally, Vimeo is taking further strides to bring about monetization capabilities with new pay-per-view movie rentals.

Linking YouTube Channel Brand Identity to Google + Pages

As you all know, how you identify yourself on YouTube is important. For awhile now, you have been able to connect your Google+ profile to your YouTube channel if you wanted that to happen. In the past, if you had used your YouTube user name and wanted to now show your name or company name instead, you could successfully link your Google profile account to your YouTube account. By doing this, it would display your name and Google profile name instead of what you have set up in YouTube.

But what about creators utilizing YouTube to create a brand? For you, the ability is coming in the next couple of weeks as a way for you to link your Google+ page to your YouTube account. What’s cool about this is that if you have multiple managers on your Google+ page, those managers can now manage your YouTube channel. If there are a couple of you who upload video content every week, you can share the same log in and password. Now, when you link your YouTube account to your Google+ page, those managers on that page will automatically be able to manage the YouTube account as well. The full details of what kind of integration or administrative access levels you’ll be able to permit are still unknown. You’ll know more when that releases in a couple of weeks.

YouTube Merchant Annotations

YouTube has dropped their store tab in favor of merchant annotations, and those merchant annotations are here. When you go and add an annotation to any of your videos from the dropdown menu, you’ll see an option there that says “merchant” and from there, you can paste in links from a variety of different merchants including iTunes, Shopify, Google Play, District Lines, CafePress, Top Spin, Spread Shirt, Sound Kick. Ironically, Amazon seems to be missing and that’s the one most people would probably use the most. If you are selling t-shirts or music tracks you can now just annotate directly and send people directly to wherever it is that you’re selling stuff off of YouTube.

There is one major caution however. Remember, that the way in which YouTube ranks videos has a lot to do with the total watch time that your video contributes per viewers so be aware that sending your viewers away from YouTube to purchase your items could influence where your video ends up on the ranking totem pole. So, use the merchant annotations, but use them wisely and realize that they could have a detrimental effect on your overall video SEO. Maybe you don’t care about that as much if you’re making a lot more money by selling stuff versus getting more views from search.

This does require two very specific devices to work. The first is an Android phone using the YouTube app and the other is Google TV connected to your television. Both of those devices need to be on the same WiFi network. It probably sounded really awesome until you read all that, but there is a way you can get around it. You can use the YouTube remote app on your phone, queue up what you want to watch there, and then control the TV if you have the YouTube app on XBox, console or YouTube is built into your smart TV. The effect is basically the same but doesn’t quite work as seamlessly as utilizing the app that was created. Until they provide an option to make this work with non-Google TV devices it might be better to just stick with using the YouTube remote.

Vimeo Monetization Strategy

Vimeo is now previewing the pay-per-view option to monetize videos. The preview is being featured with six documentary films that can be rented for $5-$9 each. When the full program launches in 2013 Vimeo may choose to lower the rental price. While Vimeo currently has the Tip Jar to allow creators to generate revenue, this could be an additional or even better option for those who are making longer form content and want the ability to charge rental fees for people to view the entire video. This ability is on YouTube, but the process is a bit more complicated than it looks like Vimeo will be making it.

On this week’s look at The Reel Web we’re gonna talk about some of the changes happening here in YouTube, including how you identify yourself here on the site, also how you sell stuff here and how you watch content here, specifically, on your big screen TV, that and much more coming up this week on The Reel Web.

Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer and welcome to another week of The Reel Web where every week we just highlight for you guys some of the online video news from the week before and this week we’re gonna do something a little bit different. Over here, you will see that I’ve outlined just the different topics I’m gonna be coving today and if you are watching this on a desktop computer they’re all annotated to jump directly to that story. So, if one of these stories isn’t like really interesting you can skip right ahead to the next one and keep on going without missing a beat.

So, use those if you’re on a desktop computer and let’s get started by talking about how you identify yourself here on YouTube. For awhile now, you’ve been able to connect your Google+ profile to your YouTube channel if you wanted that to happen. So, if you had like used before in the past your YouTube name was catlicker69 and you wanted it, instead, to show your name Tim Schmoyer, or whatever it happened to be, you could successfully link your Google profile account to your YouTube account and on YouTube, it would show your name, your Google profile name instead of your YouTube name and a lot of people have been taking advantage of that here. But, what about the people who are working on YouTube that’s like a brand or maybe there’s a couple of you collaborating around a YouTube channel and you can’t really link it to an individual personality or profile, per say?

Well, the ability is coming in the next couple weeks for you to link your Google+ page to your YouTube account and what’s cool about this is that if you have multiple managers on your Google+ page, those managers can also now manage your YouTube channel. Like here at Reel SEO, there’s a couple of us who upload video content in here every week, as you guys know, and right now, we all just kind of share the same log in, password. But now, when you link your YouTube account to your Google+ page, those managers on that page will automatically be able to manage the YouTube account as well. We don’t know the full details of what kind of integration or administrative access levels you’ll be able to permit maybe with each person or not. We’ll have to see when that releases in a couple of weeks, but know that it’s coming.

A couple weeks ago, we talked about how YouTube has dropped their store tab in favor of merchant annotations and now, those merchant annotations are here. When you go and add an annotation to any of your videos from the dropdown menu, you’ll see an option there that says merchant and from there, you can paste in links from a variety of different merchants including iTunes, Shopify, Google Play, District Lines, CafePress, Top Spin, Spread Shirt, Sound Kick and, ironically, Amazon seems to be missing cause that’s the one I would probably use the most. So, if you are selling like t-shirts or music tracks or anything that you can sell on any of those platforms, now you can just annotate directly and send people directly to wherever it is that you’re selling stuff off of YouTube, which is great.

But, there’s one major warning/caution that YouTube puts on this for all this and their warning is, ‘Hey, remember that the way we rank videos here on YouTube has very much to do with the total watch time that your video contributes per viewers and as soon as you are like at the end of that watch time totem pole and you are sending people away from YouTube, just be aware that that could influence how your videos are ranking in search.’ So, use the merchant annotations, but use them wisely, knowing that they could have a detrimental effect on your video SEO. But, maybe you don’t care about that as much if you’re making like a lot more money by selling stuff versus getting more views from search. I guess it’s kind of a balance we’ll have to play. So, you guys experiment with that and hopefully, that helps some of you generate more income.

Another update from YouTube this past week, which I think is awesome, is the ability to be watching a video on your phone and then say you know what? I’m sitting in front of my TV, I’d rather just watch this on my TV. You hit a button and BOOP instantly, it shows up on your TV. Like that sound effect right there? The caveat on though is that it requires two specific devices. One is an Android phone using the YouTube app and two, you need to have a Google TV connected to your television and both of those devices need to be on the same WiFi network. I know, it sounded really awesome until I just said all that, but there is a way you can get around it, which is what I’ve been doing for the past couple, I don’t know, for awhile now, and that’s been using the YouTube remote app on my phone and I can just queue up what I want to watch there and kind of control the TV if it has like the YouTube app on like the Xbox or a console or maybe YouTube is built into your smart TV.

You can use it that way and kind of get around. It’s the same effect, but it doesn’t quite seem as like easy as controlling your TV and your YouTube videos on your television directly from your phone. Like this new apps sounds a lot slicker, but until they figure out how to make it work with non-Google TV devices, which most of us probably don’t have, you’ll just have to stick with the YouTube remote. And speaking of watching YouTube on our televisions through consoles, YouTube has finally released an app for the Nintendo Wii. It’s available now. You can go download it through the Wii store.

I don’t have a Wii so I haven’t been able to test it out, but those of you guys who do I’d love to hear from you in the comments below what your experience has been with it. Is it nice? Is it easy to navigate? Is it easy to use? Do you like it? Do you not like it? What are some of the strengths, weaknesses? Give me your review in the comments below or even a video response would be awesome, so I can actually see and hear and if it’s a great one, maybe we’ll even be able to post it here on our Reel SEO channel and feature your review of the YouTube app for the Nintendo Wii. So make sure you do that, that would be awesome.

And finally, I want to talk about Vimeo’s new monetization strategy, which is to pay-per-view. It’s not a new strategy by any means, although it is a little bit pricey. They’re launching this with six documentary films at about $5 a pop and I think that when this like program actually fully launches, sometime in 2013, that I’ll expect that price to drop I hope because five bucks is a lot to pay for like a video rental.

But, when the service fully launches next year, I think this could be a good option for those of us who are making longer forum content and want to actually charge rental fees for people to watch out content. You can do that on YouTube, but it’s really kind of complicated and hard to get access to that and there’s some custom options you can do through some other websites, but this just seems to be the easiest way to do it.

So, that’s coming next year for those of you guys who are looking for that and for our creator’s tip video on Thursday, we actually just have a special message since it’s Thanksgiving Day. From me and Mark Robertson, our President and founder here at Reel SEO and then for next week’s Creator’s Tip we actually have an awesome interview coming that you guys will not want to miss if you want to figure out how you can turn your creativity here on YouTube into a full-fledged business and profitable living. A great interview about that is coming up, so make sure you subscribe if you haven’t already.

We’d love to have you join us for these videos that we’re doing every single week for you guys and check out some of the other videos around here if you’re new here. Also, even if you’re not new here, go check out reelseo.com cause we are publishing great stuff for you guys all throughout the week, kind of like the stuff we just talked about. All those links are linked up below this video here on YouTube and also, here at reelseo.com or wherever you happen to be watching this video and I will see you guys again next week for another look at The Reel Web. Thanks for hanging out guys. Bye.

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